On November 26, 2002, a hunter submitted a complaint to the Board that wildlife is not adequately considered when the district manager approves grazing on Crown land, and that the district’s enforcement of cattle trespass is ineffective. As well, the complainant is concerned about how fencing affects wildlife and hunting.
The Forest Practices Board has completed an assessment of the health of riparian areas subject to cattle grazing on Crown land across four forest districts in the southern half of British Columbia. Ten indicators of riparian health, or proper functioning condition, were measured at 391 sites in Cranbrook, Kamloops, Horsefly and Penticton districts. Half of the sites were on streams and half on wetlands and lakes.
Cattle lightly use the majority of riparian areas. Approximately 12 percent of riparian areas are heavily used based on our estimates of forage utilization. Overall, 71 percent of the sites are at proper functioning condition, 16 percent are functional at risk and 13 percent are non-functional. Significant differences were found between districts, with the percentage of sites at proper functioning condition ranging from 49 percent to 97 percent. The largest proportion of sites at proper functioning condition occurred in the moister biogeoclimatic zones, while the drier zones had the greatest proportion of nonfunctional sites. Riparian health scores and faecal counts in riparian areas were better in community watersheds than elsewhere. Individual pasture management was found to be a significant factor in maintaining riparian health.
In November 2001, the Freeman Brook Community Waterworks Association submitted a complaint about the control of cattle around several small streams near Freeman Brook, northwest of Salmon Arm. The complainant claimed there were multiple contraventions of the range use plan by Grouse Creek Ranch (the licensee). The complainaint also asserted that the Ministry of Forests (MOF) didn’t enforce the requirements of the range use plan. The Board decided to investigate whether the grazing and range practices complied with the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and regulations, and whether the requirements of the range use plan were enforced by MOF.
This investigation examines a complaint that Riverside Forest Products Limited (the licensee) is not adequately managing and conserving water resources and visual quality in the Mission Creek community watershed, 30 kilometres east of Kelowna.
The original complaint was that the forest development plans for the four major licensees operating in the watershed do not adequately protect wildlife, biodiversity and other resource values. The Board could not address all of those general, broad-ranging issues in a timely and meaningful way. The Board therefore narrowed the investigation to the issues and specific area of greatest concern to the complainant.
The Board audited government’s Code enforcement infrastructure and processes in December 1999 in An Audit of the Government of British Columbia’s Framework for Enforcement of the Forest Practices Code (IPA). This audit set out to provide the public and the three government ministers with an independent, objective assessment of government’s framework for Code enforcement and to establish a solid foundation for developing the Board’s enforcement audits.
